Marriage of synthetic biology and 3D printing produces programmable living materials

Applications could someday include biomanufacturing and sustainable construction

03-May-2024 - Scientists are harnessing cells to make new types of materials that can grow, repair themselves and even respond to their environment. These solid “engineered living materials” are made by embedding cells in an inanimate matrix that’s formed in a desired shape. Now, researchers report in ACS ...

Soft matter on new ways to self-organization

The groove of the self-organized active nematic ribbon

29-Sep-2020 - Nematic materials, such as the liquid crystals in our displays, contain molecules that align themselves in parallel. When they are constructed from microtubules and kinesins, materials found in our cells, they become active and move and deform without the supply of energy from the outside. In a ...

In the beginning was the phase separation

Was a simple mechanism decisive for the origin of life?

25-May-2018 - The question of the origin of life remains one of the oldest unanswered scientific questions. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now shown for the first time that phase separation is an extremely efficient way of controlling the selection of chemical building blocks and ...

Channeling graphene to understand filtration and ion transport into cells

12-Dec-2017 - Tiny pores at a cell's entryway act as miniature bouncers, letting in some electrically charged atoms--ions--but blocking others. Operating as exquisitely sensitive filters, these "ion channels" play a critical role in biological functions such as muscle contraction and the firing of brain cells. ...

'Persistent photoconductivity' offers new tool for bioelectronics

04-May-2017 - Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new approach for manipulating the behavior of cells on semiconductor materials, using light to alter the conductivity of the material itself. "There's a great deal of interest in being able to control cell behavior in relation to ...

New class of hydrogen sulfide donor molecules created

03-Jan-2017 - Molecules with the potential to deliver healing power to stressed cells - such as those involved in heart attacks - have been created by University of Oregon researchers. The research - done at a cellular level in the lab and far from medical reality - involves the design of organic molecules ...

Hydrazine has nowhere to hide

29-Aug-2013 - Scientists in the US and Korea have developed a highly sensitive fluorescent probe that can detect a toxic chemical used in industrial processes in a variety of different environments – including living cells. Hydrazine is used in in many different applications – as the gas-forming agent in air ...

3D IR images now in full color

Berkeley Lab and University of Wisconsin researchers unveil FTIR spectro-microtomography

07-Aug-2013 - An iconic moment in the history of Hollywood movie magic was born in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz when Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale stepped out of the black and white world of Kansas into the rainbow colored world of Oz. An iconic moment in the history of infrared imaging may have been born ...

3-D printer can build synthetic tissues

08-Apr-2013 - A custom-built programmable 3D printer can create materials with several of the properties of living tissues, Oxford University scientists have demonstrated. The new type of material consists of thousands of connected water droplets, encapsulated within lipid films, which can perform some of the ...

Biobatteries catch breath

11-Mar-2013 - An air-breathing bio-battery has been constructed by researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. The core element providing the new power source with relatively high voltage and long lifetime is a carefully designed cathode taking up oxygen ...